onyangomakagutu

However, I wouldn’t sweat over loss of USAID to American farmers and agricultural research.

Well if I was a “real” farmer I might sweat a little. It is the immediate cut-off of all USAID that is the problem.  There was no sliding scale to zero over a few years to allow contingency plans to be put in place. Given that USAID constituted about 0.…[Read more]

Is Trump a functional illiterate?

Reg, when i have concluded my readings and pondered weak and weary i shall add my thoughts.

Enco,

Math for sure requires reasoning and more reasoning. Music or the arts in general can be an aptitude seemingly divorced from general intelligence. Witness the musical or artistic savants who may appear in other regards dumb as a rock. Although i suppose great composers are a different case. And someone like DaVinci in his art demonstrated…[Read more]

Reg,

Trump’s tarriffs and the reaction of both domestic and foreign markets to them are definitely a problem. They don’t even make sense from Trump’s own brain salad/word salad pseudo-thinking (e.g. he’s wanting high tariffs of, if I recall, 25 percent on Canada and Mexico over allowing Fentanyl to cross the border, yet Trump only wants to tax…[Read more]

Jake,

It is so natural to lash out at the morons. lately i have been feeling that for the lefty’s. I just don’t know other than a coterie of thinkers who is not stupid. To me intelligence is critical thinking. Math, music, mechanical aptitudes are talents. Not same as general intelligence. Beliefs interfere with reason. Beliefs are the death of…

[Read more]

@jakelafort – Feel free to add to this post, if you want.

Looks interesting.

Thanks Reg.

I have recently read both of these books and I would recommend them:

The Knowledge Machine – Michael Strevens. Link.

and

Free Thinking – Simon McCarthy Jones. Link.

Second act of Trump is even more chaotic and mind bending than i would have thought. As things unravel i am very curious to find out whether hard core Trump cultists alter their position from at his feet to at his throat.

It is so natural to lash out at the morons. lately i have been feeling that for the lefty’s. I just don’t know other than a…[Read more]

Recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have significantly affected American farmers. In January 2025, the Trump administration ordered a near-total freeze on foreign aid, leading to a halt in USAID’s procurement of U.S.-grown crops for international food assistance programs. This abrupt cessation has disrupted a vital…[Read more]

I shall continue to watch Tesla in silence.

Unseen wrote:
Focusing on the economy (“It’s the economy, stupid”) wouldn’t have worked because The Orange One’s attack on the Democrats’ economy was only one of several potent tools he had: immigrants raping and murdering, immigrants bringing in fentanyl, immigrants stealing jobs in the country while Dems were allowing jobs to migrate out…

[Read more]

Focusing on the economy (“It’s the economy, stupid”) wouldn’t have worked because The Orange One’s attack on the Democrats’ economy was only one of several potent tools he had: immigrants raping and murdering, immigrants bringing in fentanyl, immigrants stealing jobs in the country while Dems were allowing jobs to migrate outside the country, Dem…[Read more]

Reg,

I misspoke too. The Neisei were second-generation Japanese-Americans. Which made their internment all the more nonsensical.

It’s a mistake to think that FDR and JFK fit into the category of Classical Liberalism.

Yes, after 2 seconds thinking about it, I fully agree. Neither were classical liberals in the tradition of Locke or Adam Smith. Both expanded federal power.  FDR and the NEW Deal was to tie down the economy in red tape and JFK  expanded a “Big Brother ” sur…[Read more]

Reg,

Traditional liberalism (rooted in John Stuart Mill, FDR, and JFK) emphasized individual rights, free speech, economic fairness, and civil liberties. Today, parts of the Democratic Party have embraced “woke” politics, which prioritize group identity, intersectionality, and equity over classical liberal principles like universalism and mer…

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Here is another review of the Sunday book recommendation.

Unseen wrote:
Her pretty face kept her in the news cycle.

It was the sensationalism of the case that kept it in the news cycle, together with her being British, one of our own.  Murder, sex, drugs, pretty girls, Africans, Italians – it had it all.